Dogwatch,
Wasn't intended to be bullying at all, merely relaying the cold hard facts.
It never ceases to amaze me the risks people take with their personal data. They either don't bother backing up, or when they do, they just entrust it all to one cheap external hard drive which doesn't really leave them in any better situation than they were before.
Normally it all ends in tears with events such as yours where the error of their ways is learnt after the event.
I just wanted to make sure you didn't just end back up in square one and simply replace your drive with another one.
That's all I was trying to say.